Earlier this week they tried to scare the electorate with forecasts of cuts that would come if the Conservatives and Unionists win the forthcoming Election. Those claims were exposed as lies and if further proof were needed, it has emerged today in the shape of the NIPSA protests over fears that the DUP Environment Minister is about to cut 270 jobs in the Planning Service.

This is in addition to the £113 million of cuts which the DUP Finance Minister has imposed on the local Health budget in this financial year.

People are not stupid. They know the economy is in a bad way and they know that hard decisions will need to be taken.

But they also know that it is utter hypocrisy for the DUP to scare-monger about what the Conservatives and Unionists might do if they came to power, at the same time as DUP cuts are already crippling the Health Service and forcing civil servants onto the street.

At Stormont the Ulster Unionist Party has consistently warned the DUP about the black hole which had been allowed to develop in the Stormont budget, but the DUP's response was to deny reality and accuse us of being financially illiterate.

Peter Robinson is busy saying one thing on public spending - and printing entirely another in his manifesto wish list.

As recent events have shown, it is the DUP who are financially illiterate. Except it would seem when it comes to claiming Westminster expenses, munching their way through mountains of food or selling off plots of land.